Ideas on bot designs
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Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
<div class="IPBDescription">motsly at map design time</div>I played alot on NS bot servers and seeing how poorly they react, it got me thinking over the few past months. I know about programing (know about 15 languages) but I admit, I do not know how bot programs are coded for NS. I had downloaded RCBot source code a while ago, thinking I would look at it and learn from it but I simply lack the time to do it. So I simply thought about how I would see a better bot program design. I may forget ideas I had as I am currently tired of a 12 hours shift.
1) At map design, special entities or bot clips could be use on walls and ceeillings to attract climbing bots to reach strategic points where when marines pass by, aliens would simply drop on them or attack them from the back. The attack process could be based on behavior class (later on that).
2) At map design, strategic placements of specific structures to be done by gorg. This would simply aid the aliens to use structural features of the map to place key structures for specific purposes. For example, a corridor leading to an archway where on the other side of the archway, there are left and right corners where there is room enough to place an OT chamber on each sides. So when marines cross the archway, they would be hit several times before they realize there are OT chambers on both sides. It may not kill the marines but it would hurt them enough so aliens could quickly kill them afterwards.
3) At map design again, special decoy or ambush targets where special alien behavior classes would appear there when marines are nearby to attract them and when they go for it, it would move away to lure them into a trap. This could be used in combination with ideas #1 and #2
4) At map design again, web targets to be used in a similar fashion then idea #2
5) At map design and code design, route guidelines for bots to travel quickly to specific areas. For example, if alien is in room-X where a route target-A is and is aware that it needs to quickly go to room-Z where target-G is, then a route table would be consulted to indicate all the other route targets it must travel to from target-A to Target-G in order to get there the fastest way possible. Maybe usages of sub-targets could be use where one Target is to ease traveling inside the room for specific points. Maybe some route paths could be coded for specific player classes like Onos or lerks or ...
6) At map design, defense positions could be define so bot would have a safer spot to act as cover and spray fire (marines, fades, lerks or gorgs). These positions could be coded with a minimal/maximal amount of players to be paced there.
7) At map design, leaping targets to enable leaping from ground to it and then leaping back at marines.
8) At map design, add more clips to prevent bots from geting stuck on stupid places where just a few units of heights is preventing it from moving foward but its too dumb to realize "Hey I am to dumb to just jump up a bit, lets go elsewhere". If it needs to go to a specific point but for some reason the current route is not possible, then idea #5 could be used
9) At code design, behavior classes could be implemented. Consider it as specializations of bot players based on player types and chosen purposes:
- scout class : bot would simply go around map scouting for ennemies or structures and inform others. He could also parasite what ever he sees just as mean of informing others
- builder class : one builder class would for attack/defense structures, one other just for ressources gathering structures, one for all other types of structures (hive, armory, ip, phase, ...)
- close range attack : bot would always go for close range attack
- mid range attack : for shooter types of bots to attack from a far
- enemy structure killer : would only attack ennemy structures
- body guard : would protect another bot/player or specific structures
- the cloacker : would always use invisibility but while using it would try as much as possible to not reveal his position only until close combat range is possible
- the decoy : to lure into traps, deceive or acting as diversion
- the player class limitations : to impose limitations on bots to prevent them from evolving to specific classes or to simply always go for one specific player class (this could eliminate res wasting)
I am sure I had other ideas but I simply never wrote them down. Overall, I just wanted to see how we could eliminate the goofy randomness of the bots, the res wasting, the %500 accuracy bot setings some servers have and to add a bit more realism/strategy into bot gameplay.
1) At map design, special entities or bot clips could be use on walls and ceeillings to attract climbing bots to reach strategic points where when marines pass by, aliens would simply drop on them or attack them from the back. The attack process could be based on behavior class (later on that).
2) At map design, strategic placements of specific structures to be done by gorg. This would simply aid the aliens to use structural features of the map to place key structures for specific purposes. For example, a corridor leading to an archway where on the other side of the archway, there are left and right corners where there is room enough to place an OT chamber on each sides. So when marines cross the archway, they would be hit several times before they realize there are OT chambers on both sides. It may not kill the marines but it would hurt them enough so aliens could quickly kill them afterwards.
3) At map design again, special decoy or ambush targets where special alien behavior classes would appear there when marines are nearby to attract them and when they go for it, it would move away to lure them into a trap. This could be used in combination with ideas #1 and #2
4) At map design again, web targets to be used in a similar fashion then idea #2
5) At map design and code design, route guidelines for bots to travel quickly to specific areas. For example, if alien is in room-X where a route target-A is and is aware that it needs to quickly go to room-Z where target-G is, then a route table would be consulted to indicate all the other route targets it must travel to from target-A to Target-G in order to get there the fastest way possible. Maybe usages of sub-targets could be use where one Target is to ease traveling inside the room for specific points. Maybe some route paths could be coded for specific player classes like Onos or lerks or ...
6) At map design, defense positions could be define so bot would have a safer spot to act as cover and spray fire (marines, fades, lerks or gorgs). These positions could be coded with a minimal/maximal amount of players to be paced there.
7) At map design, leaping targets to enable leaping from ground to it and then leaping back at marines.
8) At map design, add more clips to prevent bots from geting stuck on stupid places where just a few units of heights is preventing it from moving foward but its too dumb to realize "Hey I am to dumb to just jump up a bit, lets go elsewhere". If it needs to go to a specific point but for some reason the current route is not possible, then idea #5 could be used
9) At code design, behavior classes could be implemented. Consider it as specializations of bot players based on player types and chosen purposes:
- scout class : bot would simply go around map scouting for ennemies or structures and inform others. He could also parasite what ever he sees just as mean of informing others
- builder class : one builder class would for attack/defense structures, one other just for ressources gathering structures, one for all other types of structures (hive, armory, ip, phase, ...)
- close range attack : bot would always go for close range attack
- mid range attack : for shooter types of bots to attack from a far
- enemy structure killer : would only attack ennemy structures
- body guard : would protect another bot/player or specific structures
- the cloacker : would always use invisibility but while using it would try as much as possible to not reveal his position only until close combat range is possible
- the decoy : to lure into traps, deceive or acting as diversion
- the player class limitations : to impose limitations on bots to prevent them from evolving to specific classes or to simply always go for one specific player class (this could eliminate res wasting)
I am sure I had other ideas but I simply never wrote them down. Overall, I just wanted to see how we could eliminate the goofy randomness of the bots, the res wasting, the %500 accuracy bot setings some servers have and to add a bit more realism/strategy into bot gameplay.
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